AEW’s Swerve Strickland Praises WWE Star Using Modified Finishing Move

AEW/WWE

AEW’s Swerve Strickland has praised a current member of the WWE roster for using a modified version of his ‘Home Invasion’ finishing move.

The praise came after Fightful shared a short clip of Myka Lockwood’s finishing move on Twitter, demonstrated on WWE NXT, with a fan commeting “looks familiar” and including Swerve Strickland delivering the ‘Home Invasion’ on Will Ospreay.

Answering the suggestion of familiarity between the two moves, Strickland would initially tweet a simple “Influence” in response.

The AEW star would take a deeper look at the move in question, unearthing a tweet by Myka Lockwood from back in April 2025, where she reveals the origins of the move, sharing:

“Someone showed me this move from @theirondemon Shane Mercer, and I just had to do it! I will destroy everyone with it and to honor him I think I’ll call it…

“The Mercy Kill.

“Shane, thanks for coming up with the coolest move ever!💪”

In response to this, Strickland would comment on the complexity of Lockwood’s exectution, praising the WWE NXT star, sharing:

“The hand clutch setup is the @theirondemon version which is MUCH harder to do than my powerbomb version. Which she pulled off both excellent.”

Shane Merce would also offer his insight into the move and the way Strickland and Lockwood deliver it, responding to the AEW star with a tweet that reads:

“💯. Clutch version is momentum-based, which not everyone taking can rotate fast enough. Swerves is more versatile overall to hit. Her adapting for both is 👏”

Swerve Strickland made a return to AEW Dynamite earlier this month, confronting his rival, Hangman Adam Page, and Brodido (Brody King & Bandido, the current World Trios Champions.

Inspiration Goes A Long Way

While it’s not impossible to innovate a wrestling move in the current decade, much of what is seen in the ring has a long history, some of which is no doubt lost in time.

For some stars, however, a move that has been used for decades before becomes synonymous with a later talent. Quite often, this comes through a modification of the move, changing it just enough to make it something else, while still being a nod to what came before.

Looking at Randy Orton’s RKO, the origins are clearly seen in the Cutter, with many fans likely associating the move with the Diamond Cutter used by Diamond Dallas Page, as opposed to its predecessor, the Ace Crusher. For quite some time, Sting and Bret Hart both used Riko Chosu’s sasori-gatame, with it being known as the Scorpion Deathlock and Sharpshooter respectively. Sting used the move before Hart, yet it has become firmly associated with both stars.

Taking a move and adapting it, or using a past version of a move when a modified version already exists, is not new and will continue to be a theme for any star as they build their in-ring skill.

For Strickland to recognize the quality of Lockwood’s execution is a nod of respect to the NXT star who is coming up through the ranks in the way that he once did.

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• AEW
• nxt
• wwe
• Swerve Strickland
• Myka Lockwood

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